Greeting brothers and sisters of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod,

Thank you for the overall support that has been showered on us this past week here in the Prescott Arizona area. It has been a week filled with tragedy, sorrow and broken hearts. As most of you know, half the town of Yarnell, Arizona was destroyed and the whole town was evacuated due to the Yarnell Hill fire. Tragically, 19 Granite Mountain Hot Shots perished while fighting the fire on June 30, 2013. They were our local crew; many grew up in the area.

This tragedy has hit our church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Prescott Valley Arizona, home of God’s World Pre-School and Childcare, and our entire quad-city community very hard. Hot Shot Joe Thurston, father of one of our Pre-School families died, leaving behind a loving wife and two sons, ages 3 and 6. Hot Shot Wade Parker, one of our members’ nieces’ fiancé died also.

Trinity and I, their pastor Tim Blau, have been overwhelmed by the calls and emails from the Pacific Southwest District President Larry Stoterau, Vice President Vince Harmon and our Circuit 28 churches. I would also like to thank the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod under the leadership of President Harrison and Glenn Merrit, international director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care for their quick response to our need of comfort to the Hot Shot families, their friends, the entire Fire Department and our community.

On July 1^st we were in contact with Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) and asked them if they could send Comfort Dogs our way. On July 4th seven dogs and eight handlers flew in from three different states under the leadership of Tim Hetzner, President of Lutheran Church Charities. They came to our church and got to ‘work’ right away as they spread themselves through the crowd of hundreds of people from our community that were gathered to watch the fireworks.

The next 4 days were filled with tears, hugs, comradery and, most of all, comfort from 7 beautiful Golden Retrievers. We visited many fire stations and firefighters. Many of the fire fighters enjoyed seeing the dogs come into the station. At first they just patted their heads, but soon many were on their knees embracing the dog. They allowed the dog to comfort them and absorb some of the pain they were enduring. The dogs graciously and compassionately allowed it to happen. It was extremely moving to witness God’s grace and comfort.

We visited the Memorial Fence around Station 7 where our Granite Mountain Hot Shots were based. The setting was somber, many tears were flowing and many memorials tugged at hearts. As the dogs walked the fence line many people stooped to hug them. For some it allowed a smile to come to their hearts, for some it allowed the tears to begin to flow.

Comfort Dogs were invited to a private gathering of the families who had lost loved ones. They visited the Pre-School family (mom and two boys age 3 & 6) who lost their Hot Shot dad in the fire and were invited back the next day for more hugs, love and comfort from these beautiful dogs. They visited nursing homes and our homebound members. They attended the parade at the Courthouse Square where thousands of people gathered for Prescott’s Annual 4^th of July Parade and they spread comfort throughout the crowd.

In addition to comfort, they pass out Bible Verses as well. Each dog has their own Facebook Page where you can track their journey. Each dog has their own business card with a Bible verse on it to spread the love and compassion of Christ. If we were to hand a Bible Verse to a stranger, most would drop it into the nearest trash receptacle, but the dogs are handing out the Bible Verse so people are more receptive to receiving the card! Many look up the dog on Facebook, where they again see the verse. The Comfort Dogs enable us to touch people that wouldn’t normally approach us. They also are allowed into places that the community wouldn’t normally be able to go.

This week’s events will affect our community for a very long time. Our entire community will need long term after care, especially those directly affected.

What does Trinity Lutheran Church need to continue to reach out to these families long term?

• Funds for long term counseling, therapy and child care for Joe Thurston’s family
• Funds to quickly bring in two comfort dogs to Trinity. They will be used daily from year to year to reach out to the Thurston family, other Hot Shot families, and the entire Fire Department Community.
• Funds to reach out to the residents of Yarnell whose homes were destroyed. Many residents lost absolutely everything in the fire.

Trinity Lutheran has set up three separate accounts for these needs.

Thank you for your prayers and your overwhelming support this past week. We continue to reach out to our entire community, congregation and Pre-School as we comfort them with the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.

Caring through Christ,

Pastor Tim Blau

By Melanie Ave

On Monday afternoon, May 20, Pastor Mark Bersche of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Moore, Okla., was working in his church office.

“It was kind of a light day,” he recalled.

He looked outside and noticed the sky growing dark. “When you live in Oklahoma, you know to keep an eye on the weather,” Bersche said.

He heard a weather radio alert. A tornado warning had been issued for the south Oklahoma City suburb where he has cared for the 400-member congregation for the past two years. A twister had been spotted north of Newcastle, about 12 miles away. Packing 200 mph winds, the tornado was ripping a mile-wide path of destruction on its way to Moore.

“I’m thinking, that’s exactly where I live,” Bersche said.

He texted a weather update to his wife, Wendy, a hospice nurse who was visiting one last patient in Oklahoma City before she headed home.

The Rev. Mark Bersche, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church, Moore, Okla., holds his phone, showing an image he took of the approaching tornado. (Dan Gill)

One of their three children, Ashleigh, 11, was at Briarwood Elementary School a few blocks away. There was less than an hour left in the school day when the principal came over the intercom and told the teachers to seek shelter. They led the children into bathrooms and hallways and told them to keep their heads down in their practiced tornado positions.

“I was afraid,” Ashleigh said.

Bersche drove to his home in Oklahoma City, gathered his dogs and opened the storm shelter in the garage. Outside, in the distance, he saw a gray cone in the sky moving toward his house. He snapped a picture with his phone.

“I’ve seen tornado funnel clouds for years and years,” the native Oklahoman said. “I’ve never seen anything of this size.”

Before long, there were eight neighbors, or maybe nine, and three dogs in his underground shelter. They peeked out and saw tin, limbs, wood and other debris — the remains of homes and buildings and livelihoods — falling from the sky like rain and littering the yard.

The ground shook.

Bersche texted his wife: “Do not come home.” He sent her another text: “Things are not good here. We may not have a home tomorrow.” She would not get the text for 15 minutes. It would take her four frantic hours to get home because of the debris and chaos in the aftermath of the monstrous tornado.

At Briarwood Elementary, the school was in full tornado mode. Ashleigh said her teacher was on the verge of tears as she kept telling the children, “It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s OK.” Many of the children screamed and cried as the tornado towered over the school, darkening the hallway, ripping off the roof and doorways, and pelting the school with wood and metal. A wall fell on top of them.

“We had little kids with us,” she said. “They were screaming. They wanted their moms and dads.”

At Bersche’s home, after the debris stopped falling, a neighbor told him and the others how the Orr Family Farm, a local tourist attraction, had been destroyed.

And, the neighbor said, the schools were leveled.

Briarwood Elementary was directly west of the destroyed farm, where dozens of animals were killed by the storm. Ashleigh was finishing her sixth-grade year.

Bersche and another family jumped in the car and drove as far as they could through the storm-strewn streets of Moore to get to his daughter.

“I got out and we ran” toward the school, Bersche said. “It’s one of those scenes I’ll never forget. Everything was twisted and demolished. I know everyone says it, but it’s true. It looked like a war zone.”

Some people were limping; others bleeding. Ashleigh’s teacher had a broken ankle.

“If you looked at the school, you would think there is no way anybody could have walked out of it alive,” Bersche said. “It was nothing but rubble.”

He could not get through the sidewalk on the school’s playground — where his daughter walked to school every day — because of fallen power lines. Word began circulating among the parents and others who rushed to the school and crowded the damaged landscape: All the children at Briarwood were safe.

Sadly, that was not the case at Plaza Towers Elementary, about two miles away. Of the 24 people who died in the tornado, seven were children from that school.

Bersche found his daughter in the parking lot and wrapped his arms around her. She had been crying. She was wearing one shoe. Her glasses, backpack and bicycle were missing. He scooped her up and carried her from the scene, past flattened homes, shredded metal and spewing gas lines. A stranger whose home was severely damaged loaned Ashleigh a pair of shoes.

Bersche’s daughter was not injured. His home and church suffered no damage. But the homes of five members of St. John’s were damaged, as were the homes of four members from Trinity Lutheran Church in Norman, Okla. (Click here to read a related story, “Synod approves $100,000 grant for tornado needs.”)

Linda Shoemake of Oklahoma City, Okla., looks through the living room of her home after the May 20 tornado took off the roof. Shoemake, a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Norman, Okla., was not at home during the storm. (Dan Gill)

A block to the west of Briarwood Elementary, on the Moore-Oklahoma City border, all that’s left standing of the three-bedroom home of Trinity member Linda Shoemake is four walls. She’s lived there for 14 years and was not at home when the tornado came through.

“Your heart just falls out when you see it,” she said, fighting tears.

Trinity and St. John’s held prayer services on Wednesday, May 22. They began planning how they were going to reach out with the love and mercy of Christ to the community with the help of LCMS Disaster Response and the LCMS Oklahoma District office.

The congregation is gathering a list of volunteers and plans to become a distribution site for aid efforts. Already shipments of food and water are arriving.

At Wednesday’s prayer service, Bersche said he focused on Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

“Right now, we’re just trying to shuffle through,” he said. “Just pray for us. I’ve had so many phone calls from churches all around the nation. We really appreciate the heartfelt concern. We are so thankful people are praying.”

To see a photo album of the LCMS response to the tornado, click here.

To support those in need through LCMS Disaster Response:

• Make an online gift at https://www.lcms.org/givenow/disaster.

• Mail checks payable to “The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod” (with a memo line or note designating “LCMS Disaster Relief”) to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, P.O. Box 66861, St. Louis, MO 63166-6861.

• Call toll-free 888-930-4438 (8:10 a.m. to 4:10 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday).

Melanie Ave is a senior writer and social media coordinator for LCMS Communications.

Updated May 25, 2013

Reporter Online is the Web version of Reporter, the official newspaper of
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Content is prepared by LCMS Communications.